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How we got to Zero: Eikenberry's Hail Mary
U.S. Afghan Envoy Urges Caution on Troop Increase
"WASHINGTON -- The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American officials said Wednesday.
"The position of the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, puts him in stark opposition to the current American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who has asked for 40,000 more troops. New York Times, Nov. 11
This isn't just any envoy. General Karl Eikenberry has served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, the second as head of the Combined Forces Command. After the second Afghan tour, Eikenberry was Chairman of the NATO Joint Military Committee. He's a West Point graduate with advanced degrees from Harvard and Stanford and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
General McChrystal has asked for 50,000 troops in early October. By October 28, the president was said to favor a "McChrystal light" number as low as 15,000. On Nov. 7, just four days before Eikenberry's statement, McClatchy Newspapers put Obama's preferred number at 30,000. At this moment, the president is reported have rejected all of the troop increases on the table, according to Associated Press at 12:02 am EDT, today, November 12.
How did we get from McChrystal's request for 50,000 troops in early October to Eikenberry's "written reservations about deploying additional troops" just days before President Obama's planned decision?
Suspected Hemorrhagic Pneumonia Outbreak Hits Ukraine
by Stephen Lendman
On October 29, the Australian web site zik.com.ua reported that:
"Western Ukraine was hit by a severe epidemic of unidentified influenza, tentatively diagnosed by doctors as viral pneumonia. The number of dead has climbed dramatically. Doctors advise Western Ukrainians to stay home and use preventive medicine."
On October 30, Jane Burgermeister's theflu.com reported that:
"More than 30 people have died in the Ukraine as a result of a mysterious new virus that has an affinity for the lungs," according to Swiss reports. Ukraine's Health Ministry said the virus' origin is unknown and showed "no signs of mutating to become more virulent." So far, 40,000 people were reported sick and 951 hospitalized.
On October 30, healthfreedomalliance.org reported that Ukraine's Health Minister, Vasyl Knyazevych, said two laboratories diagnosed 11 of 33 samples tested as "highly influenza A/H1N1." As a result, he considered declaring a nationwide quarantine, even though western areas alone were affected.
CHANGE THAT SHORTCHANGES - Kucinich on war, health
Carolyn LaDelle Bennett Excerpted, edited with comment
Change that shortchanges the people of the United States is no change at all. Sleight of hand - wherever and however it occurs, whoever commits the maneuver - maintains the status quo, undermines progress, moves America backward.
Few Members of the U.S. Congress consistently get it right. This one does.
"We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care.
"We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. We can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system...
Kill Enemy Children: Jewish Edict
By Khalid Amayreh, IOL Correspondent
Hundreds of children were killed in Israel's war on Gaza earlier this year.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – A Jewish rabbi has issued a book giving Jews permission to murder non-Jews, including babies and children, who may pose an actual or potential threat to Jews or Israel. "It is permissible to kill the Righteous among non-Jews even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation," Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement in the occupied West Bank, wrote in his book "The King's Torah."
EASY ARMS, ENDLESS WAR, HARD TIMES LETHAL MIX
Re-reporting, editing and comment by Carolyn Bennett
Violence as the core response should not shock but outrage. Compel human beings to launch and sustain movements of disarmament and nonproliferation, dialogue and nonviolence.
It is from public stages, temples and pulpits, mass media, propaganda mongers and arms merchants, private places of home that inculcate and sustain a character of and predilection for violence.
I. IRAQIS 'FOR SPORT'
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. PAUL ALVIN SLOUGH, NICHOLAS ABRAM SLATTEN, EVAN SHAWN LIBERTY, DUSTIN LAURENT HEARD, DONALD WAYNE BALL Defendants. (Cr. No. 08-360-RMU), IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, September 7, 2009 Evidence in the Shooting incident on September 16, 2007: Nisur Square traffic circle in the city of Baghdad, in the Republic of Iraq -
America's old ugly face
Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah
The US is still playing fast and loose with its commitments on Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Speaking during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in West Jerusalem Saturday, 31 October, visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked that Israel was making "unprecedented concessions" on the issue of settlements. "What the prime minister has offered in specifics on restraints on a policy on settlements is unprecedented in the context of negotiations."
How the Iraq War Destroyed the US Economy
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy
Wars reduce the GDP, destroy jobs, reduce productivity, and increase the trade deficit! If wars are 'bad' for the economy, then how are they sold so easily? The quick response: they are sold with focus group tested bullshit!
There's a 'living' in killing, we are told! There is a more opulent living in the commission mass murder which requires the construction of tanks, smart bombs, and fighter jets --the MIC, in other words. But that's all just snake oil for idiots and Republicans!
That wars are good for the economy is just a bald-faced lie cooked up by the defense lobby for whom killing IS a living but only for the shrinking one percent who benefit: the Military/Industrial complex, truly MURDER INC. Fact is war is most often disastrous for the economy.
It’s Baltimore, Hon!: Did Mayor Dixon Steal from the Poor?
by William Hughes
“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.” - H. L. Mencken
Baltimore, MD - On Monday, Nov. 9, 2009, the criminal trial of Mayor Sheila Dixon will open up in the Circuit Court House, only two blocks from City Hall, where she’s reigned as boss of bosses since 2007. In a way, it will be like watching one of the iconic John Waters’ flicks. The case will have it all: sex, fur coats, a shop-till-you drop mentality, comedy, a married boyfriend in heat, gift cards, sleazy politics, back room deals, greed and high priced lawyers. In fact, the Mayor has seven lawyers on her defense team! This is probably a world record! (Saddam Hussein only had three.) This is also something film guru Waters would never allow in any of his movies. One legal eagle blowing off hot steam on behalf of a client would be more than enough for him.
Paid Lying: What Passes for Major Media Journalism
by Stephen Lendman
Today's major media journalism is biased, irresponsible, sensationalist reporting that distorts, exaggerates or misstates the truth. It's misinformation or agitprop disinformation masquerading as fact to boost circulation, readership, viewers, or listeners, and on vital issues lie about or suppress uncomfortable truths to provide unqualified support for state and/or corporate interests - to the detriment of the greater good that's always sacrificed for profits and imperial aims.
As a result, major media sources produce a daily propaganda diet and what Project Censored calls "junk food news," and get most people to believe it. In their landmark book, Manufacturing Consent, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky explained the "propaganda model" that controls the public message by "filter(ing)" disturbing truths, "leaving (behind) only the cleansed residue fit to print" or air.
40 Million "Health" Criminals
Two provisions in the House health reform bill are troubling. In a powerful post on the Welcome Back to Pottersville, poster Jurassicpork laid it out. This is as clear and logical a statement as I've seen on the utter contempt that Congress has for the people. Well worth a read. Michael Collins
From: Welcome Back to Pottersville blog. Posted by jurassicpork
In the dead of Saturday night, the House passed their version of a health reform bill that, frankly, makes Max Baucus’ first health care proposal look like a bleeding heart liberal/socialist piece of legislation by conspicuous relief. One of the most alarming aspects of HR 3962, that passed 220-215 (219 Democrats and one Republican voted for it) are the purely evil sections 7203 and 7201. The less evil of these sections, 7203, calls for $25,000 in fines and up to a year imprisonment for “defying” the federal mandate for getting insurance. That's the misdemeanor. The felony? A quarter of a million dollars in fines and up to five years in prison.
And those of you who are actually found guilty of the crime of not buying over $100 of health insurance every week will lose their jobs and earning potential. For up to five years, we will not be contributing to anything other than a prison economy. We will not be paying taxes. We will not be paying child support if we already are. And when we get thrown into the prison system, who gets to foot the bill for the health care that we'd defiantly refused to get?
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